Press Releases

SANDISK ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER 2010 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Apr 21, 2010

Milpitas, CA, April 21, 2010 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced results for the first quarter ended April 4, 2010. Total first quarter revenue of $1.1 billion increased 65% on a year-over-year basis and decreased 12% on a sequential basis. Net income, in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), was $235 million, or $0.99 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net loss of ($208) million, or ($0.92) per share, in the first quarter of 2009 and GAAP net income of $340 million, or $1.45 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the impact of share-based compensation expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, non-cash economic interest expense associated with the cash-settled convertible note, and related tax adjustments and valuation allowance, first-quarter net income was $225 million, or $0.95 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of ($108) million, or ($0.48) per share, in the first quarter of 2009 and net income of $277 million, or $1.18 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009. For reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP results, see accompanying financial tables and footnotes.

"We delivered SanDisk's first ever billion dollar Q1 in total revenue. This performance was driven by several factors including our OEM business which grew to 63% of product revenues balancing out Q1 retail seasonality, and mobile product sales which more than doubled from this time last year. Total gross margin of 46% was achieved through a combination of a stable pricing environment, excellent cost reduction and our increasingly diversified customer base. With the year off to a record start, SanDisk is poised to benefit from flash memory demand in growth markets in 2010 and beyond," said Eli Harari, Chairman and CEO.

FIRST QUARTER 2010 METRICS & HIGHLIGHTS

Total gross margin, product gross margin and operating income compared on a year-over-year and sequential basis are shown in the table below:

Metricin millions of US$, except %

GAAP

Non - GAAP

Q110

Q109

Q409

Q110

Q109

Q409

Total gross profit (loss),% of total revenue

$500 46.0%

($1) (0.2%)

$600 48.4%

$506 46.5%

$4 0.7%

$609 49.0%

Product gross profit (loss),% of product revenue

$407 40.9%

($73) (12.3%)

$501 43.9%

$412 41.5%

($67) (11.4%)

$509 44.6%

Operating profit (loss),% of total revenue

$314 28.9%

($165) (25.1%)

$376 30.3%

$334 30.8%

($146) (22.1%)

$417 33.6%

Cash flow from operations was $328 million and free cash flow was $329 million.

Total cash and equivalents, short and long-term marketable securities at the end of the first quarter were $3.30 billion compared to $2.38 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2009 and $3.02 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009.

Average price per gigabyte sold remained unchanged year-over-year and declined 7% sequentially.

OTHER RECENT KEY ANNOUNCEMENTS

SanDisk introduced its 64 gigabyte SanDisk® iNAND™ Embedded Flash Drives based on 3-bit-per-cell NAND flash technology, that can be used for boot, system code and mass storage functions in mobile phones and portable devices.

SanDisk began shipping its highest capacity SD™ card, the 64 gigabyte SanDisk Ultra® SDXC™ card, that is capable of up to 15 megabytes/sec read speed and has a Class 4 speed rating, designed for capturing and storing massive 1080p High-Definition video files.

SanDisk began shipping its SanDisk® G3 Solid State Drives to retailers in North America and Europe at capacities of 60 and 120 gigabytes.

SanDisk's first quarter 2010 conference call is scheduled for 2:00 P.M., Pacific Time, Wednesday, April 21, 2010. The conference call will be webcast and can be accessed live, and throughout the quarter, at SanDisk's website at http://www.sandisk.com/IR. To participate in the call via telephone, the dial-in number is 719-457-2656 and the dial-in password is 7487142. A copy of this press release will be furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission on a current report on Form 8-K and will be posted to our website prior to the conference call.

SCHEDULED INTERVIEWS

SanDisk Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eli Harari, is scheduled to appear on CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo," on April 21, 2010, at approximately 1:15 P.M., Pacific Time.

A complete reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP information referred to in this release is provided in the attached tables.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements about our business prospects and outlook, our expectations for fiscal year 2010 and our expectations regarding our business, including expected flash memory demand in 2010 and beyond, our mobile business and cost structure, that are based on our current expectations and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate and may significantly harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others:

unpredictable or changing demand for our products, particularly for certain form factors or capacities;

excess captive memory output or capacity which could result in write-downs for excess inventory, lower of cost or market reserves, fixed costs associated with under-utilized capacity, or other consequences;

insufficient non-memory materials or capacity from our suppliers and contract manufacturers to meet demand; or increases in cost of non-memory materials or capacity;

less than anticipated demand, including due to economic weakness in our markets;

our products may not perform as expected; and

other risks detailed from time-to-time under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2010.

Future results may differ materially from those previously reported. We do not intend to update the information contained in this release.

ABOUT SANDISK

SanDisk Corporation is the global leader in flash memory cards, from research, manufacturing and product design to consumer branding and retail distribution. SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise; embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for computers. SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States.SanDisk, the SanDisk logo and SanDisk Ultra are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. iNAND is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation. microSDHC, and SDXC are trademarks of SD-3C LLC. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).